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Bridge A Catalyst For Growth

Nibong Tebal: The RM3bil second Penang Bridge will serve as a catalyst for development at the northern corridor and also position the state as a northern hub for sea and air connections.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Penang International Airport and the Penang Port would be upgraded to support the second Penang Bridge as a gateway to the northern corridor so as to enhance and promote the economic growth of the neighbouring states.

“With the second bridge, activities at the Penang International Airport in Baya Lepas and the Penang Port will increase manifold in terms of export and import business,” said Abdullah at the ground-breaking ceremony of the second bridge in Batu Kawan yesterday.

“There is no need to build more airports or ports.  We will use what is already there, but it (current infrastructures) should be upgraded,” he said.

“Once the airport is upgraded, I believe it will have the ability and capacity to bring air cargo from the northern region to other places.  And this can also be used to import goods to cater for the needs of the northern region.

“The port when upgraded will also help boost in the northern region,” he said.

Abdullah said compared to the Klang Valley and Kinta Valley, the development of the northern region had not been aggressive.

“This may be because of the important placed on the agriculture sector.  But now, we cant this area to be developed because there are many agro based SMEs (small and medium scale enterprise) based here.”

Abdullah added that the tourism industry here would also benefit from better infrastructure.

On another matter, Abdullah assured the people that the state’s ferry services would not be terminated.

He said a special allocation would be provided to upgrade the ferry services operated by Penang Port Sdn. Bhd.

“I feel that the ferry is synonymous with Penang and is one of its main tourist attractions,” he said to reporters after the ground breaking ceremony.

Abdullah also said there must be no delays by the Penang Government in approving materials for building the bridge.

“If there are delays, we would lose a lot of money and incur more costs.  The bridge must be completed in the allocated time and done properly,” he said.

On another matter, Abdullah hopes delegates to the 57th Umno General Assembly will focus their debates and discussions on the 9th Malaysia Plan (9MP) since it is the first of the three stages to achieving Vision 2020.

Speaking later at the Permatang Pauh Umno’s open house held at the Seberang Jaya Expo site, Abdullah said the construction of the second bridge linking Batu Kawan on the mainland and Batu Maung on the island would generate over 2,000 job opportunities as well as provide sub-contract work for 200 local contractors.

Abdullah said the northern corridor was chosen for development because it had large tracts of land for agro-based and agriculture activities.

“There ate also land near Permatang Pauh suitable for the biotechnology invest.”

“I have asked Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon to bring biotechnology investments quickly into the area,” he said.

Abdullah said some 31,000 contracts had been given to small contractors in the class ‘F category following the implementation of the 9MP in June.

It took only months to conceptualise project

Bukit Mertajam: The conceptualise of Penang bridge took only a few months after the project was approved.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Effendi Norwawi said a project magnitude would normally take years to get off the ground.

“However, the Prime Minister drove himself to ensure that the whole project was ready for implementation as soon as possible”.

“The speed of implementation is particularly impressive,” he said at the Permatang Pauh Umno Hari Raya open house at Seberang Jaya expo site.

Norwawi said the project would be implemented through the private finance initiative (PFI) which he described as “another innovation in Pak Lah’s administration”.

Interesting facts and figures
Due to Open	:	Jan 2011
Overall Cost	:	RM3billion
Overall length	:	24km
Length over water	:	17km
Main span	:	Length - 250 metres
Height clearance	:	30 metres
Number of vehicle lanes	:	2 for cars and 1 for motorcycles  for each direction
Proposed speed limit on bridge	:	80kph
Percentage of local content to be used	:	60%